BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The Illinois High School Association has voted to move forward with basketball season as planned, which would defy orders handed down Tuesday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The IHSA immediately thereafter issued the following statement:
“The Illinois High School Association Board of Directors made the decision today to continue with the IHSA basketball season as scheduled in 2020-21. In August, the Board slated basketball to take place from November to February based on the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) assigning a medium risk level to the sport. The IHSA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) offered additional mitigations, such as masks during play and social distancing on benches, that the SMAC believed would allow basketball to be played safely.
The high school basketball season was potentially put on hold on October 27, when Governor Pritzker announced that IDPH had changed basketball’s risk level from medium risk to high risk.
After diligent discussion, the Board has made the decision today to follow the recommendation of the IHSA SMAC as it relates to basketball. The Board remains considerate of rising COVID-19 cases in Illinois and understand the importance of adhering to safety guidelines for the good of all citizens. However, the Board has not been presented any causal evidence that rising COVID-19 cases make basketball more dangerous to play by the IDPH or any other health organization nationally or internationally. On the contrary, the IHSA has been looking to bordering states who have sponsored both medium risk and high risk sports in the fall that have noted a low incident rate of COVID-19 spread.
Instead, we will require all IHSA basketball teams to adhere to those SMAC mitigations, and allow local school officials to make decisions related to participation.
Mounting challenges, from increased mental health issues among our students to a shrinking calendar that limits our ability to move sport seasons this school year, were instrumental in this decision to move forward with basketball as scheduled. We see our students regularly leaving the state to play sports, or covertly continuing to play locally. Students can be better protected in the high school setting, and the Board remains steadfast that playing under IHSA rules and SMAC mitigation is the safest way to conduct athletics at this juncture.
Illinois is a large and diverse state, and the IHSA membership is reflective of that. We understand that this decision will impact each high school and district differently. Some schools who remain in remote learning may not be able to start winter sports on time, and we feel for those in that situation. However, we have also learned that we cannot continue to look down the road to a season that may never come.
Contact days for our teams this fall have been an incredible boon to our students’ well-being. We fear for the mental health of students who attempt to traverse a long winter with no athletic outlet available. So much about dealing with this virus has been learned in the past eight months, and this decision will grant the membership the opportunity to apply that knowledge during their basketball season.
Each member of the IHSA Board volunteered for this position because they are passionate about high school sports and activities, and the positive impact they have on our students’ physical and mental health.”
IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said in a conference call he consulted Tuesday with Illinois Deputy Governor of Illinois for Education Jesse Ruiz, regarding the legality of making this move.
“He indicated there could be some ramifications from Illinois State Board of Education for our public schools, and there could be some ramifications from the DCEO [Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity] to our private schools if they go forward against the guidance,” he said.
“I didn’t resource any of our legal counsel related to this because, honestly, when we went into the meeting, I was really unsure of how our board was going to go with their decision making, so I really didn’t have the time.
“At some, I think, over the next month or whatever timeframe, we’ll figure out if this is a legal issue for us as an association or if it is for our schools, and then we’ll have to pivot as we’ve been pivoting a number of times throughout this school year and beyond in dealing with COVID.”
Anderson said it’s a landmark decision and that IHSA believes they can do it safely, much like they felt like they could with football.
“This is a step forward to really say as an association, we think we can do it safely, and we want it for our students,” he said.
“Without basketball in the winter, we were going to have a really big hole in our winter season with limited activities for kids.
“In terms of the safety, the guidelines put together by our Sports Medicine Advisory Committee really leaned themselves to making competition safe for students.”
Anderson says he realizes the state of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the state, but he was caught off-guard by the Pritzker and IDPH announcement Tuesday of basketball being a higher-risk sport.
He added that they haven’t seen any COVID-19 spikes caused by participation during the two months of fall contact days.
“If there’s a place where students should be competing, it’s in our schools where safety guidelines we put forth will be followed and students can reap all the benefits of participation,” said Anderson.
IHSA’s official start date for practices was set for Nov. 16, with games to begin Nov. 30.
All other winter sports were also given the green light to proceed, except wrestling, which was moved to summer.
